The present invention relates to the automatic handling of workpieces, particularly in the course of a manufacturing process, when the workpieces which come from one treatment station in given direction and position must be offered to a second treatment station in predetermined direction and position which differ from the ones that they present in the first station. The invention deals more particularly with the manufacture of textile articles during which the textile workpieces, which are unitary parts of the article, pass from one station to another in order to undergo all the operations of hemming, folding, assembly, stitching . . . leading to the finished article.
French patent application No. 79 13658, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,159, discloses a process and an installation for taking to a second station, in predetermined fixed position and orientation, a workpiece, particularly a supple workpiece in sheet form such as a fabric, which is located in a first station in an approximate position. The fact that the workpiece is located at the first station in an approximate position requires the use of means for locating the position of the workpiece with respect to the fixed mark, with the result that the transfer means are placed on the workpiece as a function of the data transmitted by the locating means, and transfer said workpiece to the second station in the predetermined fixed position and orientation.
The major drawback of the known techniques, such as that described in the Application mentioned above, resides in the succession of independent operations which increases the time necessary for accomplishing a complete cycle.